Welcome to Common Gunsense

I hope this blog will provoke some thoughtful reflection about the issue of guns and gun violence. I am passionate about the issue and would love to change some misperceptions and the culture of gun violence in America by sharing with readers words, photos, videos and clips from articles to promote common sense about gun issues. Many of you will agree with me- some will not. I am only one person but one among many who think it's time to do something about this national problem. The views expressed by me in this blog do not represent any group with which I am associated but are rather my own personal opinions and thoughts.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's fascinating to watch the "guys with the guns"get caught in their deceptions and lies about talking to the manager of the Starbucks and trying to call the police sub station to inform them of their protest. So these are the folks we should trust with their guns in public places? They are arrogant and belligerent and very sure that they are in the right. The police came because citizens were freaked out by guys sitting around with their guns outside of a Starbucks store. And not just concealed handguns but assault type rifles. People don't like having guys with guns carry them around openly in public places. Why? Because guns are lethal weapons designed to kill people. If you don't believe me, just read the recent post by Joe Nocera of the New York Times who writes The Gun Report:

Two weeks ago we announced a breather from the Gun Report. In that time, according to Slate’s gun-death tracker, which we quote at the bottom of each post, 580 people lost their lives to gun violence in America.

Stunning!

I hope you will read the entire report of gun deaths in this article( homicides and some accidents but not including suicides) because this is reality in America.

The public is not ignorant. They are smart enough to know that guns don't make them safer. Further, these guys hanging around at Starbucks with their assault rifles had a feeling that they might run into trouble for their actions. They were provocative and pushed the envelope on purpose. Their explanation that the public needs to understand about second amendment rights is pathetic and ludicrous. People have a right to be free from guns and gun violence in public places ( and at home for that matter). The men with their guns were ready with their video camera and ready to challenge what happened. This in your face behavior with guns is not OK. This is the America we have. Is this the America we want or deserve?

So when the public says they are freaked out or intimidated by openly carried guns, the "guys with the guns" counter that they get to make the rules and we should all just accept them. You can watch NRA VP Wayne LaPierre tell a bunch of folks who believe his every word say so:

It's not working out so well is it? People understand people using guns for hunting and for self defense in their homes. But when the "gun guys" start flaunting their guns in public, that is not understandable. The "gun guys" go too far. It's backfiring. ( pardon the pun) Moms Demand Action for GunSense is calling them out. Other gun violence prevention groups and bloggers are calling them out. We are tired of the corporate gun lobby being in our faces with their far right extremist agenda. It's time for that to change. Enough is enough. Common sense tells us that loaded guns in public mostly result in tragedy.

A drunk man with a legally carried pistol picked a fight with a bartender using the unimpeachable argument of "it's a free country" early last Friday in downtown Seattle, according to the Seattle Police Department.

According to the police report for the incident, the bartender was putting away his business' deck furniture in the 1900 block of First Avenue around 12:30 a.m. when the suspect walked up to him and started moving things around, such as the chain and poles separating the business from the sidewalk.

The bartender later told officers he asked the suspect to stop messing with things, and the highly intoxicated suspect responded by yelling, "Hey, it's a free country!"

According to the report, the bartender and suspect continued to "trash talk" while the bartender was stacking chairs. Eventually, the suspect turned things physical by pushing the stack of chairs into the bartender's face, causing a gash that would require stitches, according to the report.

The two men started fighting, eventually falling to the ground and rolling into the middle of the street.

According to the report, the suspect's pistol fell out of his hip holster during the fight and skittered across the pavement. An employee at a business next door heard the bartender's cries for help, grabbed the gun and called 911.

When officers arrived, they found the bartender and the employee from next door holding the screaming suspect down.

According to the report, the next-door employee handed the gun over to police, and officers handcuffed the suspect, who refused to calm down.

A quick check on the suspect and his gun revealed it was registered to him and he had a valid concealed weapons permit for it. In addition to the gun, the suspect also had a number of work-related knives on him.

The suspect was arrested and booked into King County Jail.

Permit holders aren't supposed to carry while drunk but what's to stop them? Everyone was lucky that the gun did not discharge or that the drunk man decided not to shoot it off during the fight. This is just one of many many examples I provide on this blog of gun permit holders gone wrong. But hey, it's a free country where gun extremists can exercise their rights to carry loaded guns in public. Where is common sense?

7 comments:

japete writes: "It's fascinating to watch the "guys with the guns"get caught in their deceptions and lies about talking to the manager of the Starbucks and trying to call the police sub station to inform them of their protest. So these are the folks we should trust with their guns in public places? They are arrogant and belligerent and very sure that they are in the right."

Their activities were perfectly legal in Texas. I predict that the charges they face for disorderly conduct will be dropped or tossed from court.

This is similar to a set of cases in Wisconsin where a number of individuals were ticketed for disorderly conduct or obstruction for engaging in perfectly lawful activities. These charges were dropped and the police departments later settled rather expensive civil suits.

You may not like their approach - and I don't really either - but the activity they are engaged in during this video is perfectly lawful.

"Their explanation that the public needs to understand about second amendment rights is pathetic and ludicrous."

Shouldn't the public understand ALL of our Bill of Rights? The First through the Tenth (and following) amendments? I don't think that's pathetic or ludicrous.

"Common sense tells us that loaded guns in public mostly result in tragedy."

Again, there is absolutely no evidence of this. What we know from real facts and data is that incidents are minimal, despite millions of people carrying firearms across the country. The source of gun violence is elsewhere.

As you well know Bryan, I also provide ample evidence of gun permit holders shooting others or themselves accidentally or intentionally. At this point, we don't know if some of the folks in this report were gun permit holders. I am guessing they were .

Yes, you point out individual incidents that are likely significant in the lives of those impacted, but taken in the aggregate tell a very different story.

Basic statistical analysis and criminology theory require that we look at broad trends statistically, not individual incidents, in order to understand the impact of a public policy issue. Pointing out individual incidents does not do this.

The data, taken in aggregate, tells a very different story than the one that your organizations continue to try and tell in the public's eye.

For example, what is the per capita rate for a Minnesota Permit to Carry holder to commit a crime with a firearm versus a non-permit holder? This data is easily available - and tells a *very* different story than pointing out individual incidents.

It's yahoos like this that march around with assault rifles in our neighborhoods, declaring that they are "exercising their Second Amendment rights," but only succeed in alarming everyone who sees them, tying up police time, and making a spectacle of themselves which only harms their cause. They, of course, see no harm at all, since they are immersed in their own gun fetish and think everyone else should, too. They are their own worst enemy (as usual).

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